


Last Moment

by afteriwake



Series: A Thousand Suns [21]
Category: Bleach
Genre: F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-10-16
Updated: 2012-10-16
Packaged: 2017-11-16 10:50:50
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/538648
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/afteriwake/pseuds/afteriwake
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>This was not the way he wanted it to end, but at least their story could continue.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Last Moment

**Author's Note:**

> If you haven’t guessed by now, I really like killing characters off. ::nods:: But I wanted them to be able to stay together, and no matter how I worked it I my head she had to die for it to work. Set a few weeks after “Connected,” within two months of “Derezzed.”

“Renji.”

He looked up from what he was doing, which was looking at a report from Soul Society with Captain Kyoraku and Captain Hisagi. He frowned, because Rukia was only informal with him around those who had originally been in Karakura Town and Ichigo and his friends, and not her brother or Captain Kyoraku. He straightened up and looked at her. “Yeah?”

She looked at him, and he noticed she was wringing her hands. “Your presence has been requested at Karakura General Hospital immediately.”

“What happened?” She was quiet. “Rukia, tell me what happened.”

“Arisawa-san was hit by a car this afternoon. She has just gotten out of surgery.” She looked down. “They do not believe she will survive the night. She was awake when I left, but she’s slipping in and out of consciousness.”

He blinked, and his heart felt like ice, a cold, hard lump in his chest. “What room?”

“Room 6-18.”

“Go,” Kyoraku said. “This is more important.”

“Wait a moment,” Hisagi said, putting a hand on his arm. Renji looked at him, frustration roiling up. “She will go to Soul Society if she dies. Make sure she knows to go somewhere safe. Tell her to go to…” he looked at Kyoraku.

“Jidanbou, at the gate in the first district,” he replied with a nod. “I will have Urahara send word to him. He will take care of her until you can return.”

“No,” Rukia said, and all three turned to her, looking in disbelief. “Send word to Jidanbou and tell him to send her to Kuukaku Shiba. She has said any human friends of mine are welcome to go there should they die. Jidanbou is a good person, but he has no place for her to stay. Kuukaku-san has room, and food if she needs it.”

“Thank you,” Renji said gratefully, heading towards the door. He pushed out of his gigai, told the mod soul inside to go to the hospital and meet him at her room, and used shunpo to get there quickly. He made his way to her room, and saw Ichigo, Orihime and Ishida at her bedside. Her eyes were closed, and there were many tubes surrounding her. A machine beeped quietly in the corner. “Is she…?” he asked hesitantly.

Ichigo shook his head. “Still alive. She’s fighting to stay here until she talks to you.”

“Wake her up,” he said, and he found it was very hard to speak.

“Hey, Tatsuki,” Ichigo said quietly, gently shaking her shoulder. “He’s here.”

Tatsuki winced, and then her eyelids fluttered open, and there was a small smile on her lips. “Renji,” she said, her voice a hoarse whisper.

Ichigo nodded to Ishida, who gently put a hand on his wife’s shoulder and guided her out of the room as she cried. Ichigo followed them, clasping Renji on the shoulder for a moment before leaving. He walked in and stood by her bed. “Hey,” he said quietly.

“Hey,” she said in reply, lifting the fingers of her hand up. He grasped them, glad that even in shinigami form he could interact with things, so he was able to hold her hand now. “At least this solves our problem.”

“It is not the solution I had wished for,” he said, squeezing her hand more. “You are still so young. You don’t need to die now.”

“Everyone goes sometime, and if I go now I can have a long life with you in Soul Society.” He watched her struggle to take a breath. “What will happen to me?”

“When you die, you will arrive at one of the many districts in the Rukongai,” he said. “I do not know which one. I pray it is close to the first district, because there is a gate there, and a giant man named Jidanbou guards it.” He used his other hand to smooth back her hair and then caress her cheek, and she turned into it. “Go to him and tell him who you are. He will send you to someone who will take care of you until I can return.”

“But you will return?” she asked.

“I will not leave you in Soul society by yourself, I promise,” he said quietly. “You will have to be brave and strong, Tatsuki. You may have to fight your way there.”

“I’m not scared,” she said as forcefully as she could.

“I know. But I am,” he said. “But I know when you want something you’ll fight tooth and nail for it. You’ll get there, and you’ll be safe.”

“I love you, Renji,” she said quietly. He could see she was fighting back tears and fighting for each breath she took, but she had needed to utter those words at least once to him, just in case.

“I love you too,” he said thickly, leaning down and kissing her forehead softly, letting his lips linger. “I will come for you,” he whispered.

“I’ll make it there for you,” she said, so quietly he would not have heard her if his head had not been so close.

“Go now, and be at peace,” he said, fighting the urge not to cry. He would not cry in front of her or anyone else. Their story would continue in Soul Society. He would not lose her for long.

“Thank you,” she breathed out, smiling, and she took one last breath. The machines beeped once, and then there was a long somber note as her heart stopped beating. Though the doctors could not see him he moved out of the way. No amount of medicine or medical treatment would bring her back. She was gone.

He looked to the doorway and saw Ichigo watching from the door. He moved towards him, head bowed, and stood by him as they waited for the doctors to pronounce her dead. He could not hear Orihime crying, and he assumed her husband had taken her somewhere else. She did not need to see this.

“We have lost too much, too soon,” Ichigo murmured as the doctors turned off the machine and pulled the sheet over her body. “Toshiro, Ukitake, and now her, all within two months.”

“She knows what to do, though, to be safe,” Renji said, looking up at his friend. “I have faith she will find her way back to me.”

“I do too,” Ichigo replied. “I’ll go tell the others.” With that he left, leaving Renji to wait for his gigai. He went back into the room after the doctors had left, stood by her bed and began to pray to whatever higher power she believed in that she make it there safely, and close to the first district, and be okay by the time he could go back to her. It was all he could do, now.


End file.
